Mirzeth opened his eyes when the car came to a stop. He looked out the windows and saw that they were in a parking lot.

Cynthia went to shake him awake, but stopped when she saw that he was already awake. "Oh, you woke up by yourself. We're at the motel now."

"Thanks. I'll be fine, you can go on." He unbuckled his seatbelt and unlocked his door, then opened it and got out. Closing it behind himself, he walked toward the front office of the motel. He slung the duffel bag over his shoulder as he walked. Cynthia watched him for a moment before she drove off.

Mirzeth didn't even have to ask for the exorcist. When he reached the office, the door swung open and almost hit him. A man came through, wearing what looked like a strange uniform. He stopped when he saw the other person. "Oh, sorry. Almost hit you there."

Mirzeth looked over the man, his eyes sparkling. "Wow, are you the exorcist I heard about? I was looking for someone like you." He grinned. "I'm Denzel, nice to meet you."

The exorcist stared at him, though obviously didn't see or sense anything out of place. "Cecil. What, are you looking to become an exorcist? It's a dangerous line of work, I hope you know that."

Mirzeth nodded. "I know. Are you with those schools? I've been looking for them for a while."

Cecil brought his hand up to his chin, obviously in thought. "I'm a graduate from one, I'm sure that I could get you in contact with the one that's nearby. Do you want to come with me to my room? We could talk more there."

"That'd be great! Just don't try anything, I'm stronger than I look." Mirzeth snickered. "Not that I think you would."

Cecil chuckled. "You're an enthusiastic one. C'mon, it's just this way." He turned to follow the walkway to his room. When he got to the door, he swiped his keycard and opened it. Mirzeth followed him inside and closed the door behind them. Cecil walked over and sat on one of the chairs. "Now, how much do you know about exorcisms, kid?"

Mirzeth frowned. "Not much, I'm afraid. All I know is that it aims to banish the demon back to hell so that it'll stop tormenting its target."

Cecil nodded. "That's the basic idea. However, we have found methods to kill demons. It's only effective if they appear in a physical form, though." He intertwined his fingers, frowning. "The big problem is that the only ones who seem to be able to appear in physical form are the more powerful ones. We've lost many overconfident amateurs to this approach, so I wouldn't recommend it personally. If you'd like, I could take you along when I try again tonight."

"Really? I'd love to come along. When are you gonna go?" Mirzeth sat on the end of the bed and shifted his bag to be resting on his lap. "I'm pretty eager to see what it'll be like."

"I'll probably leave in about a half hour. We could sit around and talk more, if you want. I'd like to get to know you better, especially if you're an aspiring exorcist." Cecil leaned forward, smiling. "It's always inspiring to see the next generation."

Cecil and Mirzeth walked up on the house, and the latter could immediately tell that there was a demonic presence there. He narrowed his eyes and frowned. "There's definitely something there, but I won't be able to know if it's a possession until we get inside." His eyes drifted to one of the windows, he noticed two pairs of eyes gazing at him. "It doesn't seem to be particularly strong, though."

Cecil looked over to him in surprise. "You can sense demonic presences, even without experience? You must have some natural talent." He chuckled. "I think they'll like you at the school, they rarely get people like that." With that, he walked to the front door and knocked on it. After a minute or two, the door opened and someone peeked out.

"Oh, hello again, Cecil. I didn't know that you'd be bringing another person." The woman inside the house sounded nervous.

Mirzeth gazed behind the woman, where he could see a lesser demon glaring at him. With Cecil's back turned and the woman's attention away from him, he reached up and made a "zip it" gesture. The lesser demon stared him down with all four of its eyes before it let out a resigned sigh that apparently sounded much more like a hiss to the two humans as they both jumped in shock.

"Fucking asshole, always trying to put yourself on a pedestal." It growled.

Mirzeth's eye twitched and he marched right into the house, pushing past both Cecil and the woman. As he did so, he grabbed the lesser demon by its horns and threw it against the wall. He then pinned it against the wall with one hand and leaned close to look directly into its top pair of eyes. "Go ahead, say plainly what you were implying. I dare you." His words melted into a sort of snarl as he finished his sentence. "Before I send you back to hell right here and now."

Cecil stared on in shock, he could just barely see the black outline of what Mirzeth had pinned. When he regained his composure, he reached into his coat and gripped onto the metal cross that he had there. However, he didn't intervene yet as he was admittedly rather curious about how this would play out. He was sure that he would be able to help Mirzeth if he needed it. "Denzel, you better be careful with that. It might strike back."

The lesser demon looked between Mirzeth and Cecil, quickly making a decision about which way it wanted to go. "Alright, I'll say what everyone knows. You're an overconfident asshole and hell would be a little less horrible if you just stayed up here for the rest of eternity." It spat.

Mirzeth scowled. "So that's your decision." He couldn't say that he didn't see this coming, but it was still mildly annoying to be insulted. "You're just a weakling who doesn't wanna see what the scary exorcist has in store for you." He then pressed his hand onto the demon's chest. After he muttered a spell, the demon disintegrated into ash. He brushed some off of his hand. "Disgusting creature."

Cecil's eyes widened when he felt the demonic presence completely disappear. "Wait, did you actually banish it?"

Mirzeth looked over to Cecil. "Yeah. It's my family's specialty, but also why all of them were killed." His eyes fell to the floor, and a sad expression appeared on his face.

"Your entire family? I'm so sorry." Cecil placed his hand on Mirzeth's shoulder as a comforting gesture. "You can do a lot of good, though. Your family would have been proud of you."

Internally, Mirzeth smirked. Cecil had fallen right for his lies.

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Mirzeth hopped onto one of the hotel beds in a sitting position, chuckling as he bounced on the mattress a couple times. Such a thing was rather novel to him. Sure, he'd seen them before, but it was an entirely different experience to be on one. Demons normally had no need to sleep (with notable exceptions), so beds were rather uncommon in hell.

Cecil sat on the chair again and examined Mirzeth with quizzical eyes. He said nothing for several minutes, the only sound in the motel room being the springs compressing then extending as Mirzeth played on the mattress. Finally, he decided to speak up. "How long ago was your family attacked? I understand if you don't want to talk about it, but-"

Mirzeth went still on the mattress, sighing. "A little over a month ago. They were killed off one after the other, and then the entire manor was dragged into the ground. Not even the bodies were left behind." He inhaled shakily and reached up to wipe his eyes. "There's no telling what use their bodies will be to the demons. Maybe they'll even find a way to resist banishment." He looked down at his hands.

Cecil watched Mirzeth, then got up. He walked over to him and pulled him into a hug. This gesture made Mirzeth's eyes widen in surprise and stirred up a rather alien feeling, one that the demon had never felt before. It took quite the self-control for him to not push Cecil away right there. As soon as he was let go, he moved away from the edge of the bed.

"I know what it's like to lose people that you care about. It's common in this line of work and unfortunately, it's unavoidable. I've seen many skilled men and women lose their lives while trying to get rid of demons. They were children, parents, siblings, spouses. You'll learn to cope, and it'll help you strengthen your resolve." Cecil reassured. "Heh. You've probably had twice the amount of experience of other exorcists your age."

Mirzeth stared at Cecil as he spoke, then looked to the side as soon as he stopped. He gripped his shirt above his chest with one hand in an attempt to deal with the strange feeling there. What was this feeling? Did he feel bad for this human? He let out a single, nervous, and half-assed laugh to brush off his tension. "You sure talk a lot. It makes me feel better though, so thanks."

Cecil smiled genuinely and pat Mirzeth's shoulder. "Any time. Now, are you hungry? I'm sure that an ability like yours takes a lot out of you."

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Particles of ash flurried through the air of the dim room like snowflakes, making the inhabitant cough and wheeze. The only lighting in the room was from several candles that lined a ritual circle. They gently illuminated the drawn lines and made the blood-like liquid that had seeped up from the floorboards glisten. From within the circle, Sarzun glared at the person who had summoned her. She hovered in the air, her hair floating as well in thick separated strands.

The tension in the room was instantly broken when she spoke. "Whatcha want, mortal? Make it quick, I ain't got all day. Well, I do, but still don't waste my time."

Dumbstruck, the man stared at her for a while. He seemed to have completely forgotten his original desire from shock. His gaze drifted downward, but Sarzun pretended that she didn't notice this. Rolling her eyes, she hovered closer to the edge of the circle. Her face was mere inches away from the man's, but of course she wouldn't be able to touch him due to the circle.

"Just how long do you plan to gawk at me, dumbass? If you're gonna summon a demon, at least know what you want." She crossed her arms and rolled so her back was facing the ground. Despite its length, her hair hovered just above the floor so as to not touch it. "Guess I'll be here for a while."

The man finally regained his composure, putting on a haughty expression to mask how surprised he'd been before. "I didn't know that there were demons that acted like bumpkins. You probably aren't even powerful enough to give me what I want."

Sarzun covered her mouth as she laughed. "Oh, you're one to talk about power. You're a foolish mouse that's trapped a lioness in a cage made of straw, and this lioness has a taste for blood." She lowered her voice into a deeper tone as she spoke, then turned her gaze to another part of the room. A malicious grin appeared on her face. "This lioness just found her key, Samson. Be a dear and kick out some of that salt for me."

Samson's face paled in fear as his body seized up all of a sudden, then kicked out a portion of the circle in a robotic fashion. His body only stopped when there was a wide enough gap for Sarzun to pass. She turned upright and then landed so that she could walk out of the circle.

"Now, what should I do with you? Should I string you up to bleed until all of that red blood of yours has drained, or should I drink it all?" She shoved him against a wall and then pressed her arm against his neck to pin him there. "I'm in the mood to gorge. Don't worry, I'll make it slow and painful for you. I saw how you looked at me."

He stared at her in horror, his entire body frozen. "Please- please don't kill me! I don't want to die like this!" Tears ran down his face as he begged for his life.

Sarzun's eyes narrowed, and she lowered her tone once again. "How pathetic. You mortals always look so ridiculous when you beg for your lives." She pressed her arm harder against his neck to remind him of his place. "What you should be begging for is a quick death. Let's try this again, shall we?"

Samson brought his hand up and slapped her across the face. Perhaps he hoped that she'd let him go and give him a chance for escape, or perhaps he was just lashing out from fear. Either way, this stupid attack made Sarzun snarl at him. She grabbed his neck with one hand and threw him to the side. She then stalked over to him and stomped on one of his legs. The snap that rang out was music to her ears, as well as the scream of agony that followed.

"You're just an evil bitch!" He spat at her and desperately tried to pull himself away from her. "I hope you burn when you go back to hell!"

Sarzun laughed and stomped on his other leg, breaking it as well. "I'd love to, but I'm fireproof. In fact, you've doomed yourself even more by summoning me. You think they'll welcome you upstairs, demon summoner? No, your selfishness will make you fit right in when you're in hell." She pinched her thumbs and index fingers, then pressed them together. Muttering a spell of some sort, she pulled them apart. A glistening string formed between them. It looked like a spider's thread and was barely visible to the human eye. She pulled the string longer until it was at her full armspan. "Have you ever wondered how long it takes for a human to bleed out? It depends on a lot of things. Wound size, body size, how panicked they are. I'm a bit impatient, so I've never tested it. I might just rip your throat out."

"Evil bitch! Vampire! Stay the fuck away from me!" Samson continued to throw whatever curses he could at her as he was tied up by the seemingly invisible strings. He quickly found out that when he struggled against them, they cut into his skin. Blood started to run down them before it absorbed into the once-clear threads.

Sarzun stepped back when she was finished, grinning at how well she had strung him up. "You're in quite the predicament here, aren't you? I could tighten those strings whenever I want. I might just keep you here for a while so you can feed me. Now, do you know anything about a school for exorcists? One of my friends is headed there, and I'd like to meet up with him."

He growled at her. "I don't have to tell you anything, slut!" He howled in pain when the strings dug into his skin. "Fine, fine! There's one to the north of here, I've been hiding from them for the past year since they started going after cultists."

"Ooh, cults? How exciting. That's all I wanted from you, have fun bleeding here." She then turned to exit the room and explore the building. Hopefully, there was a mirror somewhere so she could see what she would look like in a disguise. Her explorations brought her to a rather untidy bedroom with a full-length mirror. "Huh. My lucky day, I guess."

She stepped around some piles of clothes to get to the mirror and look over herself. Letting out an exasperated sigh, she raised her hand and then swept it downward. Her skin faded into a much lighter shade and gained color, settling into a warm beige tone. Her horns disappeared and her fangs shrunk, then her hair darkened until it was a warm black. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, they had gained light brown irises.

After fussing over her appearance for a while and then deciding her disguise was good enough, she backed away from the mirror. "This works. I'll need some human clothes, though." She then left to start gathering some clothes for her journey.